Master/slave control of touch sensing

ABSTRACT

Touch sensing can be accomplished using master/slave touch controllers that transmit drive signals to a touch surface and process sense signals including superpositions resulting from master/slave drive signals. The master/slave can drive and sense different sets of lines, respectively, of the touch surface. A communication link between master/slave can be established by transmitting a clock signal between master/slave, transmitting a command including sequence information to the slave, and initiating a communication sequence from the clock signal and sequence information. The slave can receive/transmit communications from/to the master during first/second portions of the communication sequence, respectively. Touch sensing operations can be synchronized between master/slave by transmitting a command including phase alignment information from master to slave, and generating slave clock signals based on the clock signal and the phase alignment information, such that sense signal processing by master clock signals are in-phase with sense signal processing by slave clock signals.

CROSS REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/961,761, filed Dec. 7, 2015 and published on Mar. 24, 2016 as U.S.Patent Publication No. 2016-0085262, which is a continuation of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 14/338,092, filed Jul. 22, 2014 and Issuedon Dec. 8, 2015 as U.S. Pat. No. 9,207,799, which is a divisional ofU.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/877,056, filed Sep. 7, 2010 andissued on Sep. 2, 2014 as U.S. Pat. No. 8,823,657, the contents of whichare incorporated herein by reference in their entirety for all purposes.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

This relates generally to touch detection using a master/slaveconfiguration, and more particularly, to the synchronization andcoordinated operation of a master and one or more slave touchcontrollers.

BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE

Many types of input devices are presently available for performingoperations in a computing system, such as buttons or keys, mice,trackballs, joysticks, touch sensor panels, touch screens and the like.Touch screens, in particular, are becoming increasingly popular becauseof their ease and versatility of operation as well as their decliningprice. Touch screens can include a transparent touch sensor panelpositioned in front of a display device such as a liquid crystal display(LCD), or an integrated touch screen in which touch sensing circuitry ispartially or fully integrated into a display, etc. Touch screens canallow a user to perform various functions by touching the touch screenusing a finger, stylus or other object at a location that may bedictated by a user interface (UI) being displayed by the display device.In general, touch screens can recognize a touch event and the positionof the touch event on the touch sensor panel, and the computing systemcan then interpret the touch event in accordance with the displayappearing at the time of the touch event, and thereafter can perform oneor more actions based on the touch event.

Mutual capacitance touch sensor panels, for example, can be formed froma matrix of drive and sense lines of a substantially transparentconductive material such as Indium Tin Oxide (ITO), often arranged inrows and columns in horizontal and vertical directions on asubstantially transparent substrate. Drive signals can be transmittedthrough the drive lines, which can make it possible to measure thestatic mutual capacitance at the crossover points or adjacent areas(sensing pixels) of the drive lines and the sense lines. The staticmutual capacitance, and any changes to the static mutual capacitance dueto a touch event, can be determined from sense signals that can begenerated in the sense lines due to the drive signals.

Controllers can be used to generate the drive signals for the touchsensor panel, and can also be used to receive and process sense signalsfrom the touch sensor panel. Controllers can be implemented in anApplication Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC). However, because aparticular controller ASIC design can provide only a limited number ofdrive signals and can receive only a limited number of sense signals, asthe number of drive and sense lines on larger or finer resolution touchsensor panels increases, that single controller ASIC can be inadequateto support those touch sensor panels.

SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

Touch sensing can be accomplished using a master touch controller andone or more slave touch controllers that operate together to control atouch sensing surface. The master and slave touch controllers cantransmit drive signals over different drive lines of the touch sensingsurface, and resulting sense signals can be received by the master andslave controllers from different sense lines. Each sense signal caninclude a superposition resulting from drive signals from the master andslave controllers because, for example, each sense line can be driven bydrive signals from the master controller and by drive signals from theslave controller. Processing of the sense signals can be based onvarious clock signals in the master and slave controllers. The slave'sclock signals can be generated in-phase with the master's clock signalssuch that the sense signal processing in the slave controller can bein-phase with the sense signal processing in the master controller.

A communication link between the master controller and the slavecontroller can be established by transmitting a clock signal between themaster and slave controller. The clock signal can be, for example, ahigh-frequency clock signal, such as a 48 MHz clock signal. A commandincluding sequence information can be transmitted to the slave, and theslave can initiate a communication sequence based on the clock signaland the sequence information. The sequence information can tell theslave, for example, which clock cycle of the high-frequency clock signalis the starting clock cycle of the communication sequence, how manyclock cycles are included in each communication sequence, and in whichportions of the communication sequence the master and slave control.Once the slave has been trained for the communication sequence, forexample, the slave can receive communications from the master during afirst portion of the communication sequence, and the slave can transmitcommunications to the master during a second portion of thecommunication sequence.

Touch sensing operations can be synchronized between the mastercontroller and the slave controller by transmitting a command includingphase alignment information from master to slave. Various master clocksignals used in the master controller to perform touch sensingoperations, such as generating drive signals, and filtering anddemodulating sense signals, can be generated in-phase in the slavecontroller, such that the various slave clock signals can perform touchsensing operations in-phase with the master.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an example touch sensing system according to variousembodiments.

FIG. 2 illustrates another example touch sensing system according tovarious embodiments.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example touch sensing process according to variousembodiments.

FIG. 4 illustrates example clock signals used in touch sensing accordingto various embodiments.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example serial link between a master and slavetouch controllers according to various embodiments.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example method of synchronizing master and slavetouch controllers according to various embodiments.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example synchronization communication according tovarious embodiments.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example serial interface according to variousembodiments.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example back-to-back transmission according tovarious embodiments.

FIG. 10 illustrates an example accumulator according to variousembodiments.

FIG. 11 illustrates an example method of transferring results data ofvalid channels according to various embodiments.

FIGS. 12A-12C illustrate an example mobile telephone, an example digitalmedia player, and an example personal computer that each include anexample master/slave touch controller configuration according to variousembodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following description of embodiments, reference is made to theaccompanying drawings which form a part hereof, and in which it is shownby way of illustration specific embodiments of the disclosure that canbe practiced. It is to be understood that other embodiments can be usedand structural changes can be made without departing from the scope ofthe disclosed embodiments.

This relates generally to touch detection using a master/slaveconfiguration, and more particularly, to the synchronization andcoordinated operation of a master touch controller and one or more slavetouch controllers. The coordinated operation can include phase-aligningvarious clock signals of the master and one or more slave controllers,such that coordinated operation can be achieved. Various operations canbe performed based on the phase aligned clock signals, such as drivingthe touch sensing surface with in-phase drive signals from the masterand slave touch controllers, demodulating sense signals received by themaster and slave touch controllers with in-phase demodulation signals,and applying the sense signals to decimation filters operating in-phasein the master and slave touch controllers.

Although embodiments disclosed herein may be described and illustratedherein in terms of mutual capacitance touch sensing surfaces, it shouldbe understood that the embodiments are not so limited, but can beadditionally applicable to, for example, self-capacitance, optical,resistive, and other touch sensing surfaces and technologies that candetect single and/or multiple touches on or near the surface.Furthermore, although embodiments may be described and illustratedherein in terms of a single master/single slave system, it should beunderstood that some embodiments can include systems using a singlemaster and multiple slaves, multiple masters and multiple slaves, andother configurations.

In some example embodiments, a touch sensing surface can include a touchscreen, such as an LCD display with touch sensing functionality that isinactive during a display phase when display circuitry is generating animage, and that senses touch during a touch sensing phase when thedisplay circuitry is inactive, such as during a blanking period of thedisplay. Sensing touch when other circuitry of the device, such asdisplay circuitry, is inactive can help mitigate the effects of noiseand/or interference caused by the other circuitry on touch sensing, butcan also reduce the amount of time allowed for each touch sensingprocessing.

By way of example, some embodiments of an integrated touch sensingsystem may be based on self capacitance and some embodiments may bebased on mutual capacitance. In a self capacitance based touch system,each of the touch pixels can be formed by an individual electrode thatforms a self-capacitance to ground. As an object approaches the touchpixel, an additional capacitance to ground can be formed between theobject and the touch pixel. The additional capacitance to ground canresult in a net increase in the self-capacitance seen by the touchpixel. This increase in self-capacitance can be detected and measured bythe touch sensing system to determine the positions of multiple objectswhen they touch the touch screen. In a mutual capacitance based touchsystem, the touch sensing system can include, for example, drive regionsand sense regions, such as drive lines and sense lines. In one examplecase, drive lines can be formed in rows while sense lines can be formedin columns (e.g., orthogonal). The touch pixels can be provided at theintersections of the rows and columns. During operation, the rows can bestimulated with an AC waveform and a mutual capacitance can be formedbetween the row and the column of the touch pixel. As an objectapproaches the touch pixel, some of the charge being coupled between therow and column of the touch pixel can instead be coupled onto theobject. This reduction in charge coupling across the touch pixel canresult in a net decrease in the mutual capacitance between the row andthe column and a reduction in the AC waveform being coupled across thetouch pixel. This reduction in the charge-coupled AC waveform can bedetected and measured by the touch sensing system to determine thepositions of multiple objects when they touch the touch screen. In someembodiments, an integrated touch screen can be multi-touch, singletouch, projection scan, full-imaging multi-touch, or any capacitivetouch.

Controlling touch sensing using a master/slave system can provideadvantages. For example, in some integrated circuit (IC) implementationsof touch controllers, a master/slave configuration may result in areduction of the number of connections needed for the DIE, which couldallow the use of less expensive and/or smaller DIE packaging options,such as allowing the use of wafer chip scale packaging instead of ballgrid array packaging. Consequently, the cost, size and/or thickness ofthe device may be reduced.

In some cases, designing a touch sensing system using two or more touchcontrollers in a master/slave configuration may be less expensive thanusing a single touch controller. For example, larger and/or higherresolution touch sensing surfaces, such as touch pads and touch screens,may be designed to include more drive lines and/or sense lines thanexisting touch controllers can process in a single scan. In some cases,it may be possible to control touch sensing of a new touch sensingsurface using a single existing touch controller by scanning some of thedrive/sense lines during a first scan and then scanning the remainingdrive/sense lines during a second scan, e.g., dual scan. However, someapplications may require touch data to be processed in less time than adual scan of the panel would require. In this case, one option could beto design a new touch controller that includes more drive channels andsense channels to handle the larger touch sensing surface. However,designing a new touch controller can be expensive. In some cases, asignificant cost savings may be realized by using two or more existingtouch controllers in a master/slave configuration to control the newtouch sensing surface, instead of designing a new touch controller.

However, implementing a master/slave configuration in some touch sensingsystems can be difficult. For example, timing constraints in some touchsensing systems can pose barriers to implementing a master/slaveconfiguration of touch controllers. In some touch sensing systems,synchronization of various signals, events, etc., can be important forthe accurate operation of touch sensing.

For example, some touch sensing systems can stimulate multiple drivechannels with multiple, simultaneous drive signals to generate one ormore sense signals. Each sense signal can include a superposition ofsignals resulting from the multiple drive signals. Touch information canbe extracted from one or more of the sense signals through a variety ofmethods. For example, in some mutual capacitance touch sensing systems,sense signals are generated from injections of charge at multiplelocations on a sense line. The injections of charge correspond to drivesignals that are simultaneously applied to multiple drive lines. Thesense signals can be demodulated, and the extracted data can beintegrated over a number of scan steps to obtain touch data. Accuratedemodulation can require a high degree of synchronization of, forexample, the phases of the stimulation signals, the phases of thedemodulation signals, the timing of various processing operations, etc.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an example computing system 100 thatillustrates one implementation of an example touch screen 120 accordingto embodiments of the disclosure. Computing system 100 could be includedin, for example, a mobile telephone, a digital media player, a personalcomputer, or other devices that include a touch screen. Computing system100 can include a touch sensing system including one or more touchprocessors 102, peripherals 104, a master touch controller 106, a slavetouch controller 166, and touch sensing circuitry (described in moredetail below). Peripherals 104 can include, but are not limited to,random access memory (RAM) or other types of memory or storage, watchdogtimers and the like. Master touch controller 106 can include, but is notlimited to, one or more sense channels 108, channel scan logic 110, abus 111 (such as an advanced high-performance bus (AHB)), a serialinterface 113, and driver logic 114. Channel scan logic 110 can controldriver logic 114 to generate stimulation signals 116 at variousfrequencies and phases that can be selectively applied to drive lines122 of touch screen 120 that are connected to master touch controller106, as described in more detail below. Sense channels 108 can receivesense signals 117 from sense lines 123 of touch screen 120 that areconnected to master touch controller 106. Channel scan logic 110 canaccess RAM 112 to write and read data. For example, after the sensesignals have been processed (described in more detail below), channelscan logic 110 can autonomously read the resulting data from sensechannels 108 and accumulate the resulting data by writing the data intoRAM 112. Thus, RAM 112 can function as an accumulator of the resultsdata. Channel scan logic 110 can also provide control for sense channels108.

Slave touch controller 166 can include the same elements as the mastertouch controller, such as one or more sense channels 168, channel scanlogic 170, a bus 171 (such as an AHB), a serial interface 173, anddriver logic 174. Channel scan logic 170 can control driver logic 174 togenerate stimulation signals 176 at various frequencies and phases thatcan be selectively applied to drive lines 122 of touch screen 120 thatare connected to slave touch controller 166, as described in more detailbelow. Sense channels 168 can receive sense signals 177 from sense lines123 of touch screen 120 that are connected to slave touch controller166. Channel scan logic 170 can access RAM 172 to write and read data.After the sense signals have been processed, channel scan logic 170 canautonomously read the resulting data from sense channels 168 andaccumulate the resulting data by writing the data into RAM 172, suchthat RAM 172 can act as an accumulator of the results data. Channel scanlogic 170 can also provide control for sense channels 168.

In some embodiments, the functionality of a touch processor andperipherals may be included in the master touch controller, in both themaster touch controller and one or more slave touch controllers, etc.,such that touch processor 102 and peripherals 104 may not be required asseparate components. In some embodiments, each of the master and slavetouch controllers can be implemented as a single application specificintegrated circuit (ASIC). In some embodiments, the master and slavetouch controllers can have identical designs, i.e., two instances of thesame touch controller, with one configured to operate as master and theother configured to operate as slave; in this case, for example, thegeneration of clock signals and other operations that the slave iscapable of performing independently can be disabled so that the slavecan rely on the master's clock signals, etc. to allow more synchronousoperation. For example, a slave can be configured to receive a clocksignal from the master instead of generating the clock signal itself.Likewise, the master can be configured to transmit the clock signal itgenerates to the slave. Some embodiments can include one or more mastertouch controllers and/or one or more slave touch controllers.

Computing system 100 can include a serial link 115 that connects mastertouch controller 106 and slave touch controller 166 through serialinterface 113 and serial interface 173, respectively. Serial link 115can include two wires, for example, one wire for a clock signal and onewire for data. Various elements of master touch controller 106 cancommunicate with elements of slave touch controller 166 through seriallink 115, as described in more detail below. Computing system 100 canalso include a host processor 128 for receiving outputs from touchprocessor 102 and performing actions based on the outputs. For example,host processor 128 can be connected to program storage 132 and a displaycontroller, such as an LCD driver 134. Host processor 128 can use LCDdriver 134 to generate an image on touch screen 120, such as an image ofa user interface (UI), and can use touch processor 102, master touchcontroller 106, and slave touch controller 166 to detect a touch on ornear touch screen 120, such as a touch input over the displayed UI. Thetouch input can be used by computer programs stored in program storage132 to perform actions that can include, but are not limited to, movingan object such as a cursor or pointer, scrolling or panning, adjustingcontrol settings, opening a file or document, viewing a menu, making aselection, executing instructions, operating a peripheral deviceconnected to the host device, answering a telephone call, placing atelephone call, terminating a telephone call, changing the volume oraudio settings, storing information related to telephone communicationssuch as addresses, frequently dialed numbers, received calls, missedcalls, logging onto a computer or a computer network, permittingauthorized individuals access to restricted areas of the computer orcomputer network, loading a user profile associated with a user'spreferred arrangement of the computer desktop, permitting access to webcontent, launching a particular program, encrypting or decoding amessage, and/or the like. Host processor 128 can also perform additionalfunctions that may not be related to touch processing.

Touch screen 120 can include touch sensing circuitry that can include acapacitive sensing medium having a plurality of drive lines 122 and aplurality of sense lines 123. It should be noted that the term “lines”is a sometimes used herein to mean simply conductive pathways, as oneskilled in the art will readily understand, and is not limited tostructures that are strictly linear, but includes pathways that changedirection, and includes pathways of different size, shape, materials,etc. One set of drive lines 122 can be driven by master touch controller106 with stimulation signals 116 from driver logic 114 through a masterdrive interface 124 a, and another set of drive lines 122 can be drivenby slave touch controller 166 with stimulation signals 176 from driverlogic 174 through a slave drive interface 124 b. Resulting sense signals117 generated in one set of sense lines 123 can be transmitted through asense interface 125 to sense channels 108 (also referred to as an eventdetection and demodulation circuit) in master touch controller 106, andresulting sense signals 117 generated in another set of sense lines 123can be transmitted through sense interface 125 to sense channels 168 inslave touch controller 166. In this way, drive lines and sense lines caninteract to form capacitive sensing nodes, which can be thought of astouch picture elements (touch pixels), such as touch pixels 126 and 127.This way of understanding can be particularly useful when touch screen120 is viewed as capturing an “image” of touch. In other words, touchdata extracted from sense signals 117 and 171 can be used to determinewhether a touch has been detected at each touch pixel in the touchscreen, and the pattern of touch pixels in the touch screen at which atouch occurred can be thought of as an “image” of touch (e.g. a patternof fingers touching the touch screen). The specific combination of driveand sense lines controlled by the master and slave touch controllers candepend on factors such as the number of drive lines the master and slaveare capable of driving, the number of sense lines the master and slaveare capable of processing, etc.

FIG. 2 illustrates one example combination of drive lines and senselines controlled by an example master/slave system of touch controllersaccording to embodiments of the disclosure. FIG. 2 shows a touch screen201 including drive lines 203 and sense lines 205. In this exampleembodiment, there are forty drive lines 203 and thirty sense lines 205.A set of twenty of drive lines 203, shown in FIG. 2 as master-controlleddrive lines 203 a, are connected to a master touch controller 206through pinouts 207, and a set of the twenty drive lines 203 (shown asslave-controlled drive lines 203 b) are connected to a slave touchcontroller 209 through pinouts 211. A set of fifteen sense lines 205,shown in FIG. 2 as master-controlled sense lines 205 a, are connected tomaster touch controller 206, and a set of fifteen sense lines 205, shownas slave-controlled sense lines 205 b, are connected to slave touchcontroller 209. In this example, pinouts 207 and pinouts 211 serve as adrive interface for the master and slave, such as drive interfaces 124 aand 124 b in FIG. 1, and pinouts 213 and pinouts 215 serve as senseinterfaces for the master and slave, such as sense interface 125 inFIG. 1. The master and slave touch controllers can include serialinterfaces 217 and 219, respectively, that allow the master and slave tocommunicate over a serial link 221, such as serial interfaces 113 and173 and serial link 115 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example touch sensing operation according toembodiments of the disclosure. A touch screen 301 can include drivelines 303 and sense lines 305. Driver logic 307 of a master touchcontroller can drive some of drive lines 303 with stimulation signals309 transmitted by drive transmitters 311 based on an 8 MHz clock signal313, for example. Each stimulation signal 309 can interact with senseline 305. The interaction can vary based on an amount of touch at acorresponding touch pixel 314 and result in a signal on the sense linethat can include information of the amount of touch. Driver logic 315 ofa slave touch controller can drive other drive lines 303 withstimulation signals 317 transmitted by drive transmitters 319 based onan 8 MHz clock signal 321, for example. Each stimulation signal 317 caninteract with sense line 305, and the interaction can vary based on anamount of touch at a corresponding touch pixel 322, resulting in asignal on the sense line that can include information of the amount oftouch. Stimulation signals 309 and 317 can be transmitted simultaneouslysuch that the stimulation signals from the master and slave touchcontrollers interact with sense line 305 at the same time, resulting ina sense signal 323 that can be a superposition of signals resulting fromthe interaction of each stimulation signal with the sense line. In otherwords, sense signal 323 can include touch information that can includecomposite information of the amounts of touch at multiple touch pixels314 and 322. Sense signal 323 can be received by a sense channel 325 ofthe master (or slave) touch controller.

An amplifier 327 of sense channel 325 can amplify sense signal 323, anda band pass filter (BPF) 329 can filter the amplified signal. Thefiltered signal can be converted to a digital signal by ananalog-to-digital converter (ADC) 331. For example, ADC 331 can be asigma-delta ADC, which can operate to oversample the signal at ahigh-speed to cut down on the amount of noise by sampling at a higherrate than the stimulation signal frequency. In this example, ADC 331samples the signal at a rate of 48 MHz based on a clock signal 333. ADC331 can output a digital signal that is 4 bits at the 48 MHz samplerate, for example. The digital signal can be filtered with a decimationfilter (DCF) 335 based on a 12 MHz clock signal 337, resulting in adigital signal that is 11 bits at a 4 MHz sample rate, for example. Thesignal can then be demodulated by a demodulator 339 based on a 4 MHzclock signal 341 to extract the touch information. In some embodiments,the touch information from the demodulated signal can be integrated overmultiple scans of touch screen 301, for example, by accumulating thetouch information over a period of time in storage devices, such as anaccumulator in RAM 112 (or RAM 172 if sense channel 325 is in the slavetouch controller) shown in FIG. 1. In some embodiments, the touchinformation may need to be combined with other touch information inorder to extract information of the amount of touch at each individualtouch pixel. For example, the touch information may be combined withtouch information of other sense lines and/or other scans usingprocessing methods such as eigenvalue analysis including singular valuedecomposition (SVD) to determine eigenvalues that correspond toinformation of the amount of touch at individual touch pixels. In someembodiments, the processing methods can include matrix operations, forexample.

As illustrated in FIG. 3, the processing of sense signal 323 in sensechannel 325 of the master touch controller can be based on three clocksignals of the master, i.e., clock signal 333 (48 MHz), clock signal 337(12 MHz), and clock signal 341 (4 MHz), for example. In someembodiments, the accuracy of the touch information extracted from sensesignal 323 by the processing of sense channel 325, for example, canrequire that the stimulation signals that generate sense signal 323 arein-phase with clock signals 333, 337, and/or 341, i.e., the 48 MHz, 12MHz, and/or 4 MHz clock signals of the master. For example, demodulatingwith a demodulation signal that is not in-phase with the stimulationsignal can result in an error that manifests as a direct current (DC)offset. In some touch sensing systems, touch information can be ameasure of a DC portion of the demodulated signal, and thus, a DC offseterror could result in an error in the touch measurement. In someembodiments, the error may be compounded due to, for example,combination of touch information through integration, demodulation,etc., processes. Therefore, the phase alignment of various clock signalscan be a consideration in some embodiments.

FIG. 4 illustrates example square wave clock signals for 48 MHz clocksignal 333, 12 MHz clock signal 337, 8 MHz clock signal 313, and 4 MHzclock signal 341 of the master touch controller according to exampleembodiments of the disclosure. FIG. 4 shows that at a time t=X, each ofclock signals 333, 337, 313, and 341 goes from a low state to a highstate. Thus, in this example, the clock signals are in-phase at time X.Furthermore, because the higher-frequency clock signals, i.e., clocksignals 333, 337, and 313, each have a frequency that is an integermultiple of the frequency of the lowest-frequency clock signal, i.e.,clock signal 341, one skilled in the art will understand that the fourclock signals will be in-phase every time clock signal 341 goes from thelow state to the high state. In other words, every time clock signal 341goes from the low state to the high state, each of the other three clocksignals will also go from the low state to the high state. The mastertouch controller can generate clock signals 333, 337, 313, and 341internally such that they are in-phase at time X, as shown in FIG. 4.Thus, the portion of sense signal 323 that results from the master'sstimulation signals 309 can be in-phase with clock signals 333, 337, and341, which are used for processing by ADC 331, DCF 335, and demodulation339, respectively, of the master's sense channel 325.

However, as described above, sense signal 323 can be a superposition ofsignals based on the master's stimulation signals 309 and the slave'sstimulation signals 317. In other words, sense signal 323 received bythe master's sense channel 325 can be based, in part, on a clock signalof the slave touch controller, i.e., clock signal 321 (8 MHz), on whichstimulation signals 317 are based. Therefore, it can be desirable thatclock signal 321 of the slave touch controller is in-phase with clocksignals 333, 337, and 341 of the master touch controller so that, forexample, the portion of sense signal 323 resulting from the slave'sstimulation signals 317 can be at an appropriate phase for processing inthe master's sense channel 325.

Likewise, other sense signals may be received by sense channels of theslave touch controller, and processing of those sense signals may bebased on three corresponding clock signals (i.e., a 48 MHz clock signal,a 12 MHz clock signal, and a 4 MHz clock signal, not shown) of theslave. Accurate determination of touch information by the sense channelsof the slave touch controller may depend on the phase alignment of 8 MHzclock signal 313 of the master and clock signals in the slave, i.e., the48 MHz, 12 MHz, and 4 MHz clock signals of the slave. In sum, in thisexample use of master and slave controllers to process sense signalsthat can include a superpositions of signals based on each other's drivesignals, the accuracy of the touch information extracted from theprocessing of the sense channels can depend on the phase-alignment ofall of the relevant clocks, e.g., the 48 MHz, 12 MHz, 8 MHz clock, and 4MHz clock signals of the master and slave.

An example method of synchronizing master and slave touch controllers bygenerating in-phase clock signals of the master and slave touchcontrollers via a communication link, such as a serial link, accordingto embodiments of the disclosure will now be described with reference toFIGS. 5-7. In this example method, one of a plurality of clock signals(e.g., the 48 MHz clock signal) can be transmitted between a mastercontroller and a slave controller, and the remaining clock signals(e.g., the 12 MHz, 8 MHz, and 4 MHz clock signals) can be generatedin-phase based on the transmitted clock signal. It is noted that exampletouch sensing operations described above, including transmittingstimulation signals, receiving sense signals, and processing the sensesignals to obtain touch information, have been described first for thepurpose of illuminating that phase alignment of various clock signalsmay be advantageous in some master/slave touch sensing configurations.However, in most embodiments, touch sensing operations such as describedabove will be performed after phase alignment of the master and slaveclock signals using, for example, one or more of the example processesdescribed below with reference to FIGS. 5-7.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example master/slave touch controller systemaccording to embodiments of the disclosure. A master touch controller501 can be connected to a slave touch controller 503 with a serial link505. A master serial interface 507 of master touch controller 501 and aslave serial interface 509 of slave touch controller 503 can performoperations such as establishing a common clock signal, establishingserial communication between the master and slave touch controllers,synchronizing one or more lower-frequency clock signals, programming theslave touch controller, and transmitting results data to a processor forcentralized processing, such as transmitting results data from the slavetouch controller to a processor located in the master touch controller.In this example, serial link 505 includes a clock line 511 and a dataline 513. The master and slave touch controllers can send data, such ascommands, control characters, results of touch processing, etc., overdata line 513.

Referring to FIGS. 5-6, master touch controller 501 includes a clock(not shown) that generates (601) a master clock signal 515 at 48 MHz.Other clock signals, such as 12 MHz, 8 MHz, and 4 MHz clock signals (notshown), for example, can also be generated in master touch controller501. The clock signals generated by the master touch controller cancorrespond to clock signals 333, 337, 313, and 341 shown in FIG. 4, forexample. In an initialization process, which may occur when the systemfirst starts, after an error is detected in a previous communication,etc., master touch controller 501 transmits (602) master clock signal515 over clock line 511 to slave touch controller 503. In someembodiments, the master touch controller can precede the transmission ofmaster clock signal 515 with a reset signal, for example, which cancause the slave touch controller to revert to an initial state in whichcertain operations of the slave are stopped and the slave is monitoringserial link 505. As a result of transmission of the master's 48 MHzclock signal to the slave, the 48 MHz clock signal generated by themaster touch controller can be essentially the same 48 MHz clock signalused by the slave touch controller. Therefore, after accounting forshifts in the phase of clock signal 515 due to, for example,transmission delays, processing delays, etc., if any, as describedbelow, the 48 MHz clock signals of the master and slave touchcontrollers can be in-phase.

Master touch controller 501 can train (603) slave touch controller 503to establish a communication sequence across data line 513 of seriallink 505. For example, master touch controller 501 can transmit acommand, for example a sync link character, over data line 513 toinitiate a communication sequence with slave touch controller 503. Inone example communication sequence, a bi-directional communication overdata line 513 can be established, in which the master can transmit overthe data line during the first half of a time period, and the slave cantransmit over the data line during a second half of the time period. Forexample, a twenty-four clock cycle period (numbered, e.g., clock cycles0-23) can be shared between the master and the slave, such that themaster controls a first portion of the communication sequence, e.g., thefirst twelve clock cycles (i.e., clock cycles 0-11), as a mastertransmit period, and the slave controls a second portion, e.g., thesecond twelve clock cycles (i.e., clock cycles 12-23), as a slavetransmit period. Some of the sequence information may be predetermined,such as, for example, the number of clock cycles in each master/slavetransmit period and the portions of each communication sequence used formaster and slave transmit periods. In some embodiments, for example, thesync link character can be a command that simply indicates a beginningclock cycle of the communication sequence, which can indicate to theslave when to begin counting the 48 MHz clock cycles at a clock cycle 0,and a memory of the slave may include data that can be pre-storedlocally in the slave, of the length of the communication sequence (e.g.,0-23 clock cycles), the clock cycles that are for master transmission,and the clock cycles that are for slave transmission. The slavecontroller can read the pre-stored data from the local memory to be usedin conjunction with the sequence information transmitted by the master.

For example, the sync link character can train the slave to know which48 MHz clock cycle is a first clock cycle (e.g., clock cycle 0) of themaster/slave communication sequence, which 48 MHz clock cycle is a lastclock cycle (e.g., clock cycle 23), which portions of the communicationsequence are controlled by the master and slave. Control ofcommunication over data line 513 can continue to alternate between themaster and slave. After communication has been established between themaster and the slave, the slave's lower-frequency clocks, such as 12MHz, 8 MHz, and 4 MHz clocks, for example, can be set to be in-phasewith the lower-frequency clocks of the master, such that touch sensingoperations can be performed in-phase by the master and the slave, asdescribed below.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example clock signal setting process according toembodiments of the disclosure. FIG. 7 shows master transmissions andslave transmissions over data line 513 after training 603 of FIG. 6 hasestablished serial communication between the master and slave touchcontrollers. FIG. 7 shows the master/slave 48 MHz clock signal, i.e.,clock signal 333, master 4 MHz clock signal 341, and a slave 4 MHz clocksignal 701. During the first twelve of the 48 MHz clock cycles of afirst time period 703, master touch controller controls transmissionover data line 513, and slave touch controller controls transmissionduring the second twelve clock cycles of the first time period. Firsttime period 703 can be, for example, a time period immediately followingthe establishment of communication between the master and slave bytraining 603 of FIG. 6, or first time period 703 can be a subsequenttime period. Using twelve clock cycles for each master/slavetransmission can make sense in this example because the high frequencyclock signal, 48 MHz, and the low frequency clock signal, 4 MHz, differby a factor of twelve, which may allow internal processes to be runconveniently at 4 MHz.

The master and slave touch controllers can transmit packetized data,such as packets 705 and 707, over data line 513. Each packet can be, forexample, a 12-bit packet that includes a 10-bit character, one bit foran auxiliary, and one bit for turnaround. The 10-bit character can be,for example, 8b/10b encoded data.

As described above, because the master touch controller transmits the 48MHz clock signal to the slave, the 48 MHz clock signals (the highfrequency clock signals) of the master and slave touch controllers arethe same clock signal (shown as one clock signal 333 in FIG. 7) and aretherefore in-phase. The serial communication protocol can be establishedbased on clock signal 333. In some embodiments, the slave touchcontroller can generate other clock signals based on the high frequencyclock signal received from the master. Initially, the other clocksignals in the slave may not be in-phase with the corresponding clocksignals in the master. In this example embodiment, during first timeperiod 703, the low frequency clock signals, i.e., the 4 MHz clocksignals 341 and 701 of the master and slave, respectively, are notin-phase. In this example, clock signal 341 goes from low to high at thefirst 48 MHz clock cycle of first time period 703, and clock signal 701goes from low to high at the fourth 48 MHz clock cycle.

Referring to FIG. 6, after serial communication between the master andslave touch controllers is established by training (603), for example,the master can send 8b/10b control characters, and the slave can receiveand reply to the master. For example, the master touch controller cantransmit (604) a set clock command to the slave touch controller. Theset clock command can allow the slave to set one or more other clocksignals to be in-phase with corresponding clock signals in the master.The slave touch controller can receive the set clock command and set(605) one or more of its clock signals based on phase alignmentinformation in the set clock command. The phase alignment informationcan indicate the time at which the one or more clock signals of themaster touch controller will go from a low state to a high state, forexample. FIG. 7 illustrates an example clock setting procedure in whichthe master touch controller can transmit a set clock command 709 as a10-bit control character of packet 705 during first time period 703. Setclock command 709 can instruct the slave touch controller, for example,to set its lower frequency clock signals to go from low to high at thefirst 48 MHz clock cycle of a subsequent time period, for example, twotime periods after the time period in which the slave received the setclock command. FIG. 7 shows that the slave touch controller can receiveset clock command 709 transmitted in first time period 703, and theslave can set clock signal 701 to go from low to high at the first 48MHz clock cycle of a third time period 711, which is two time periodsafter the first time period.

In this example embodiment, the slave and master clock signals arein-phase when the slave's lower frequency clock signals are set to gofrom low to high at the first 48 MHz clock cycle of the time period. Insome embodiments, the slave and master clock signals may be in-phase ata different one of the 48 MHz clock cycles because of, for example,delays in the system, such as communication delays, panel delays, etc.For example, in some embodiments, the configuration of the drive andsense lines of the touch sensing surface can cause the sense signalsreceived by the master to be received earlier than the sense signalreceived by the slave. In this case, the delay in the reception of theslave's sense signals can require a corresponding delay in the slave'slower frequency clock signals. Thus, in some embodiments, the set clockcommand may cause the slave to set the lower frequency clock signals togo from low to high at the third 48 MHz clock cycle, for example. Inother words, the lower frequency clock signals of the slave can be basedon the 48 MHz clock signal and phase alignment information, such as aknown difference in delays in the touch sensing system by, for example,three 48 MHz clock cycles. The slave clock signals can be generated in aknown phase relationship with the master clock signals so that the clocksignals of the master and slave are in-phase with respect to the touchsensing operations performed in the master and slave.

In some embodiments, the slave touch controller may not generate otherclocks until receiving a set clock command from the master. In thiscase, after the slave receives the command from the master, the slavemay simply begin generating one or more other clock signals at theappropriate time such that they are in-phase with the master's clocksignals.

As mentioned above, once the clock signals of the master and slave touchcontrollers are in-phase, touch sensing operations such as describedabove with reference to FIGS. 1-4 can be performed under the control ofthe master touch controller using the serial link, for example, tocommunicate commands to the slave, to program the slave, to receive datafrom the slave, etc. Serial interfaces, such as serial interfaces 113and 173, of the master and slave touch controllers can providefunctionality for communication via the serial link.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example serial interface 801 that can provide aninterface between a serial link 803 and components of a touch controllerthat can be connected through a bus 805, such as an AHB, according toembodiments of the disclosure. Serial interface 801 may be implemented,for example, as serial interface 113 and/or serial interface 173 ofFIG. 1. Serial interface 801 can include a physical link section 807that can provide a low-level interface to serial link 803, and a packetdecode and generation section 809 that can provide a higher-levelinterface to various components of the touch controller and other systemcomponents that are connected to bus 805, such as a processor 811, amemory 813 including an accumulator 815, and a panel scan control 817.

Transmissions over serial link 803 can be, for example, data packetsencoded under 8b/10b protocol. Physical link section 807 can include analignment module 819 that can receive and perform byte alignment of datapackets, and an 8b/10b decode 821 that can convert the encoded packetsinto 8-bit data, provide error checking, and send the data to packetdecode and generation section 809 for further processing. Physical linksection 807 can also include 8b/10b encode 823 that can convert outgoing8-bit packets into 10-bit packets and send them to a serializer 825 thatcan serialize the packets and transmit them across serial link 803.Physical link section 807 can also include a training module 827 thatcan perform a training operation, such as training (603) of FIG. 6, toestablish serial communication with other touch controllers across adata line of serial link 803.

Packet decode and generation section 809 can include a serial receive(RX) section 829 that can include a packet decode 831 that decodes 8-bitpacket data from 8b/10b decode 821 and determines, for example, adestination of the packet. Serial RX section 829 can send the packet toits destination within packet decode and generation section 809 or canforward the packet to a bus interface 833 for transmission on bus 805 ifthe destination is outside of the packet decode and generation section.A serial transmit (TX) section 835 can include a request selector 837that prioritizes requests to be sent out over serial link 803. Forexample, request selector 837 can be a scheduler, such as a round robinscheduler. Serial TX section 835 can also include a packet generator 839that can packetize data to be sent out over serial link 803.

Bus interface 833 can include a bus master interface 841 and a bus slaveinterface 843 that can allow serial interface 801 to communicate withother components of the touch controller via bus 805. Bus masterinterface 841 can communicate with the other components of serialinterface 801, for example, to forward read/write register requests,etc. Bus slave interface 843 can allow other components with a busmaster interface on bus 805 to communicate with serial interface 801.

Through bus interface 833, serial interface 801 can provide an interfacefor touch controller components connected to bus 805 to communicate withthe components of other touch controllers through the other touchcontrollers' serial interfaces. Various example communications aredescribed below in terms of communications between components of amaster touch controller and components of a slave touch controller.While the example communications will be described using only the singleillustrated example serial interface 801 of FIG. 8, it should beunderstood that each of the master and slave touch controllers include aserial interface such as serial interface 801 and that, with theexceptions of “bus master interface” and “bus slave interface”,reference to a “master” or “slave” for a specific location of acomponent refers to a master touch controller and a slave touchcontroller, respectively.

In one example communication, processor 811 of the master can write intoa memory register of the slave. The master's processor can transmit arequest to the bus that would be picked up by the master's bus slaveinterface, which would encode the request as a series of 12-bittransmissions and would send the transmissions across serial link 803 tothe slave, where it is decoded. After decoding on the slave, the requestwould be forwarded to the slave's bus master interface, which would takethe request and transmit it on the slave's bus to accomplish therequested write into the slave's memory.

Serial interface 801 can also include specialized interfaces that canprovide support for specific type of communications. For example, apanel scan control interface 844 can provide a specialized interface forpanel scan control 817. Panel scan control 817 can be the primarycontrol for stimulation, demodulation, and other signal processing fortouch sensing. Therefore, synchronous operation of the master and slavepanel scan controls can be desirable. The master's panel scan controlcan transmit control characters, through the master's panel scan controlinterface 844, across serial link 803 to control the operation of theslave's panel scan control and to coordinate the slave's operations withthe master's operations. In some cases, panel scan control interface 844can transmit special control characters. For example, when panel scancontrol needs to send an urgent data, panel scan control interface caninclude a back-to-back transmission command with the data.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example series of transmissions 901-905, includinga back-to-back transmission of the master. Master transmit period 901and slave transmit period 902 represent normal transmit periods duringwhich the master transmits a packet 907 and the slave transmits a packet909, respectively. During master transmit period 903, the mastertransmits packet 911, which includes a back-to-back transmission command917. Back-to-back transmission command 917 can be, for example, can betransmitted in the auxiliary bit of a packet transmitted to the slaveduring a master transmit period to instruct the slave not to transmitduring the next slave transmit period because the master will betransmitting. In other words, the master will transmit in twoconsecutive transmit periods by “hijacking” one of the slave's transmitperiods. A back-to-back transmission can be particularly useful when atouch controller has time-critical information to communicate, and whenthe amount of information is not excessively large. For example, acontrol packet communicated by the panel scan control can be only twobytes long, with the first byte in the packet being an indication of thestart of a control packet and the second byte in the packet being theactual control packet, for example. In this case a single back-to-backtransmission would be enough to transmit the entire packet, and thebandwidth of the serial link that is usurped by the back-to-backtransmission can be acceptable. When the slave decodes the packet andrecognizes the back-to-back transmission command, the slave does nottransmit during the next slave transmit period, rather, the slavelistens for a transmission from the master. Thus, FIG. 9 shows the nexttransmit period as master transmit period 904, during which the mastertransmits a packet 913. In the next transmit period, slave transmitperiod 905, the slave can transmit a packet 915, and normalcommunication sequence can resume with alternating master/slave transmitperiods. It should be noted that a slave may use a back-to-backtransmission in some circumstances, i.e., back-to-back transmission isnot limited to a master transmissions.

Referring to FIG. 8, more details of an example panel scan controltransmission will now be described. Panel scan control 817 can send arequest to serial interface 801 to indicate that the panel scan controlhas a control packet to send across serial link 803. A handshake betweenserial interface 801 and panel scan control 817 can be performed suchthat the panel scan control can be informed by serial interface 801 ofwhen a request is sent. In this way, panel scan control 817 can knowwhen to expect the slave to act on the request, for example, because thesystem can have a known, fixed latency for the time it takes for theslave to act on a request. The actions of the master and slave can, forexample, be coordinated based on known latencies and known transmissiontimes of the commands. Therefore, various touch sensing processes, suchas the processes described above with reference to FIGS. 1-4 may beperformed with a master/slave configuration of touch controllersaccording to embodiments of the disclosure.

As described above, during a touch sensing scan of the touch sensingsurface, touch information is collected by each of the sense channels ofthe master and slave touch controllers. The touch information of eachsense channel can be accumulated in an accumulator, such as accumulator815. FIG. 10 illustrates an example accumulator 1001 in a master touchcontroller. Accumulator 1001 can include thirty columns, for example,corresponding to thirty sense lines of the touch sensing surface, e.g.,touch screen 201 shown in FIG. 2, including fifteen columns for masterresults data 1003 collected by the master's sense channels and fifteencolumns for slave results data 1005 collected by the slave's sensechannels. At the end of a scan of the touch sensing surface, i.e., whentouch information from all sense lines has been collected by thecorresponding sense channels of the master and slave touch controllers,master results data 1003 is stored in columns 0 through 14 ofaccumulator 1001, but columns 15 through 29 are empty because slaveresults data is stored in a corresponding accumulator in the slave.Thus, touch information can be generated by and stored in the master andslave touch controllers. In some embodiments, results data such as thetouch information that is stored in the master touch controller can beprocessed in the master to obtain output data, such as touch location,velocity, proximity, etc., and likewise, results data stored in theslave touch controller can be processed in slave. However, in someembodiments, results data stored in the master and one or more slavescan be processed in a single touch controller. For example, results datastored in the slave touch controller can be transmitted to the mastertouch controller and consolidated with the master's results data forprocessing. In this regard, once the accumulator of the slave hasaccumulated a predetermined amount of data (columns), the slave'saccumulator can send a request to transmit the slave results data to themaster.

For example, the slave's accumulator can communicate with the slave'saccumulator interface 845 through the slave's bus 805 to indicate to theaccumulator interface that data is available for transfer (e.g., thescan is completed). The accumulator interface can generate a request tothe slave's serial TX section 835, which can generate a results packetand can send the results packet across the serial link. The resultspacket can be decoded by the master's packet decoder 831 and can bewritten by the master's accumulator interface 845 through the master'sbus slave interface into the accumulator of the master touch controller.

As described above, the time allowed for processing touch information ofeach scan might be limited. FIG. 11 illustrates an example results datatransfer process that includes determining the validity of a sensechannel and excluding invalid channels from the results data transferaccording to embodiments of the disclosure. When the slave touchcontroller is ready to transfer results data to the master, the slave'saccumulator interface can obtain (1101) information from a channel anddetermine (1102) whether the channel is valid. For example, the channelinformation may be noise information that is determined by a spectrumanalyzer function performed by the panel scan control of the slave touchcontroller. If the channel is determined to be too noisy, the slave'saccumulator interface may determine that the channel is not valid andthe channel can be excluded (1103) from transmission to the master. Onthe other hand, if the channel is determined to be valid, theaccumulator interface can write (1104) the channel's data into atransmission packet. The channel's identification can also be writteninto the packet. For example, the identification of one or more validchannels can be written into the packet's header, such that the headerinformation identifies the valid channel data that is included in thepacket. The process can then determine (1105) whether the channel is thelast channel. If the channel is the last channel, the results packet canbe transmitted (1106) to the master touch controller. Otherwise, theaccumulator interface can obtain (1101) information of the next channeland the process can be repeated.

In some embodiments, the determination of whether a channel is valid orinvalid can be made dynamically, i.e., in real-time during the operationof touch sensing. For example, a determination of the level of noise ofeach channel can be made for each scan, and therefore, the determinationof the validity of a channel can vary with each scan. In otherembodiments, the validity of a channel can be predetermined. Forexample, not all of a slave's (or master's) sense channels may be used;that is, some of the sense channels may be inactive. For example, FIG. 2illustrates one example configuration in which a touch screen 201includes thirty sense lines, and each of the two touch controllerincludes fifteen sense channels; thus, all of the sense channels of themaster and slave are used, i.e., all of channels are valid. However, inanother example embodiment, a touch screen can include twenty-five senselines, for example, and fifteen sense lines can be connected to themaster's fifteen sense channels, while the remaining ten sense lines canbe connected to ten of the slave's sense channels. In this example, fiveof the slave's sense channels can be predetermined to be invalid.

In some embodiments in which channel validity is determined dynamically,the determination can be based on noise, such that the result data ofnoisy channels can be determined to be invalid and, thus, is nottransferred to the master. In some embodiments, the determination can bebased on detected interference of the sense channel, for example,interference between the sense channel and other circuitry near thesense channel, such as display circuitry that displays an image on adisplay screen. In other embodiments, the slave's accumulator interfacemay determine whether the results data of a channel is indicative of atouch or no touch. If the results data indicates no touch, then theaccumulator interface may determine the channel to be invalid andexclude the channel's results data from transfer to the master. In otherwords, only results data indicative of a touch may be transferred. Inother embodiments, some channels may be specialized to indicate only atouch/no touch of, for example, a specific location on the touch screen.

Note that one or more of the functions described above can be performedby software and/or firmware stored in memory and executed by one or moreprocessors. The firmware can also be stored and/or transported withinany computer-readable storage medium for use by or in connection with aninstruction execution system, apparatus, or device, such as acomputer-based system, processor-containing system, or other system thatcan fetch the instructions from the instruction execution system,apparatus, or device and execute the instructions. In the context ofthis document, a “computer-readable storage medium” can be any mediumthat can contain or store the program for use by or in connection withthe instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. The computerreadable storage medium can include, but is not limited to, anelectronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, orsemiconductor system, apparatus or device, a portable computer diskette(magnetic), a random access memory (RAM) (magnetic), a read-only memory(ROM) (magnetic), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM)(magnetic), a portable optical disc such a CD, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD, DVD-R,or DVD-RW, or flash memory such as compact flash cards, secured digitalcards, USB memory devices, memory sticks, and the like.

The firmware can also be propagated within any transport medium for useby or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, ordevice, such as a computer-based system, processor-containing system, orother system that can fetch the instructions from the instructionexecution system, apparatus, or device and execute the instructions. Inthe context of this document, a “transport medium” can be any mediumthat can communicate, propagate or transport the program for use by orin connection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, ordevice. The transport readable medium can include, but is not limitedto, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic or infrared wiredor wireless propagation medium.

Some of the potential advantages of various embodiments of thedisclosure, such as thinness and/or reduced size, may be particularlyuseful for portable devices, though use of embodiments of the disclosureis not limited to portable devices. FIGS. 12A-12C show example systemsin which master/slave processing may be implemented in a touch screenaccording to embodiments of the disclosure. FIG. 12A illustrates anexample mobile telephone 1236 with a touch screen 1224 that can includemaster/slave touch sensing processing according to various embodiments.FIG. 12B illustrates an example digital media player 1240 with a touchscreen 1226 that can include master/slave touch sensing processingaccording to various embodiments. FIG. 12C illustrates an examplepersonal computer 1244 with a touch screen 1228 and a trackpad 1230 thatcan each include master/slave touch sensing processing according tovarious embodiments.

Although the disclosed embodiments have been fully described withreference to the accompanying drawings, it is to be noted that variouschanges and modifications will become apparent to those skilled in theart. For example, although generating/transmitting drive signals andprocessing sense signals in the foregoing example embodiments caninclude operations such as generation/transmission based on an 8 MHzclock signal, analog-to-digital conversion based on a 48 MHz clocksignal, decimation based on a 12 MHz clock signal, and demodulationbased on a 4 MHz clock signal, some embodiments can generate/transmitdrive signals and can process sense signals using other operationsand/or based on clock signals of other frequencies, some or all of whichmay be phase-aligned according to methods described above. Such changesand modifications are to be understood as being included within thescope of the disclosed embodiments as defined by the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system comprising: master touch controllercircuitry; and slave touch controller circuitry coupled to the mastertouch controller circuitry; wherein the master touch controllercircuitry and slave touch controller circuitry are configured tostimulate sensing nodes of a touch sensitive surface at least partiallysimultaneously with a plurality of stimulation signals, wherein theplurality of stimulation signals include at least a first stimulationsignal from the master touch controller circuitry and at least a secondstimulation signal from the slave touch controller circuitry; andwherein the slave controller circuitry is configured to sense one ormore first sense signals from the sensing nodes of the touch sensitivesurface, the one or more first sense signals affected by the firststimulation signal from the master touch controller circuitry and thesecond stimulation signal from the slave touch controller circuitry. 2.The system of claim 1, wherein the master touch controller circuitry isconfigured to sense one or more second sense signals from the sensingnodes of the touch sensitive surface, the one or more second sensesignals affected by the first stimulation signal from the master touchcontroller circuitry and the second stimulation signal from the slavetouch controller circuitry.
 3. The system of claim 2, wherein the mastertouch controller circuitry is configured to transmit a first clocksignal and a set clock command to the slave touch controller circuitry.4. The system of claim 3, wherein the master touch controller circuitryis configured to establish a serial communication between the mastertouch controller circuitry and the slave touch controller circuitrybefore transmitting the set clock command.
 5. The system of claim 4,wherein the communication between the master touch controller circuitryand slave touch controller circuitry includes alternating periods oftransmission of the master touch controller circuitry and the slavetouch controller circuitry.
 6. The system of claim 5, wherein thecommunication between the master touch controller circuitry and slavetouch controller circuitry includes transmission of a second commandthat causes two consecutive periods of transmission for one of themaster touch controller circuitry and the slave touch controllercircuitry.
 7. The system of claim 3, wherein the slave touch controllercircuitry is configured to generate, in response to the set clockcommand and based on the first clock signal, a plurality of slave clocksignals, wherein the plurality of slave clock signals are generated in aknown phase relationship with one or more master clock signals of themaster touch controller circuitry wherein at least one of the pluralityof slave clock signals is at a different frequency than the first clocksignal.
 8. The system of claim 7, wherein the first stimulation signalfrom the master touch controller circuitry is generated based on themaster clock signal, and the second stimulation signal from the slavetouch controller circuitry is generated using one of the plurality ofslave clock signals.
 9. The system of claim 7, wherein the master touchcontroller circuitry and slave touch controller circuitry are configuredto demodulate the one or more first sense signals and the one or moresecond sense signals with in-phase demodulation signals based on thephase relationship of the plurality of slave clock signals and the oneor more master clock signals.
 10. The system of claim 7, wherein themaster touch controller circuitry includes a first decimation filter andthe slave touch controller circuitry includes a second decimation filteroperating on the one or more first sense signals and the one or moresecond sense signals, wherein the first decimation filter and the seconddecimation filter operate in-phase with each other based on the phaserelationship of the plurality of slave clocks signals and the one ormore master clock signals.
 11. A method comprising: stimulating sensingnodes of a touch sensitive surface at least partially simultaneouslywith a plurality of stimulation signals, wherein the plurality ofstimulation signals include at least a first stimulation signal frommaster touch controller circuitry and at least a second stimulationsignal from slave touch controller circuitry; and sensing one or moresense signals from the sensing nodes of the touch sensitive surface, theone or more sense signals affected by the first stimulation signal fromthe master touch controller circuitry and the second stimulation signalfrom the slave touch controller circuitry.
 12. The method of claim 11,further comprising: transmitting a first clock signal from the mastertouch controller circuitry to the slave touch controller circuitry;transmitting a first command from the master touch controller circuitryto the slave touch controller circuitry; and generating, by the slavetouch controller circuitry in response to the first command and based onthe first clock signal, a plurality of slave clock signals in the slavetouch controller circuitry, at least one of the plurality of slave clocksignals different from the first clock signal, wherein the plurality ofslave clock signals are generated in a known phase relationship with oneor more master clock signals of the master touch controller circuitry.13. The method of claim 12, further comprising: establishing a serialcommunication link between the master touch controller circuitry and theslave touch controller circuitry before transmitting the first command.14. The method of claim 12, further comprising: transmitting a secondcommand from the master touch controller circuitry to the slave touchcontroller circuitry; and in response to the second command, causing twoconsecutive periods of transmission for the master touch controllercircuitry or the slave touch controller circuitry.
 15. The method ofclaim 12, further comprising: demodulating the one or more sense signalswith in-phase demodulation signals based on the phase relationship ofthe plurality of slave clock signals and the one or more master clocksignals.
 16. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storinginstructions, which when executed by touch controller circuitry, causethe touch controller circuitry to perform a method, the methodcomprising: stimulating sensing nodes of a touch sensitive surface atleast partially simultaneously with a plurality of stimulation signals,wherein the plurality of stimulation signals include at least a firststimulation signal from master touch controller circuitry and at least asecond stimulation signal from slave touch controller circuitry; andsensing one or more sense signals from the sensing nodes of the touchsensitive surface, the one or more sense signals affected by the firststimulation signal from the master touch controller circuitry and thesecond stimulation signal from the slave touch controller circuitry. 17.The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 16, themethod further comprising: transmitting a first clock signal from themaster touch controller circuitry to the slave touch controllercircuitry; transmitting a first command from the master touch controllercircuitry to the slave touch controller circuitry; and generating, bythe slave touch controller circuitry in response to the first commandand based on the first clock signal, a plurality of slave clock signalsin the slave touch controller circuitry, at least one of the pluralityof slave clock signals different from the first clock signal, whereinthe plurality of slave clock signals are generated in a known phaserelationship with one or more master clock signals of the master touchcontroller circuitry.
 18. The non-transitory computer readable storagemedium of claim 17, the method further comprising: establishing a serialcommunication link between the master touch controller circuitry and theslave touch controller circuitry before transmitting the first command.19. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 17, themethod further comprising: transmitting a second command from the mastertouch controller circuitry to the slave touch controller circuitry; andin response to the second command, causing two consecutive periods oftransmission for the master touch controller circuitry or the slavetouch controller circuitry.
 20. The non-transitory computer readablestorage medium of claim 17, the method further comprising: demodulatingthe one or more sense signals with in-phase demodulation signals basedon the phase relationship of the plurality of slave clock signals andthe one or more master clock signals.